William Finlayson (Australian politician)

For other people named William Finlayson, see William Finlayson (disambiguation).

William Finlayson
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Brisbane
In office
13 April 1910 – 13 December 1919
Preceded byJustin Foxton
Succeeded byDonald Cameron
Member of the Queensland Legislative Council
In office
19 February 1920 – 23 March 1922
Personal details
Born(1867-08-12)12 August 1867
Kilsyth, Stirlingshire, Scotland
Died13 January 1955(1955-01-13) (aged 87)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
NationalityScottish Australian
Political partyAustralian Labor Party
OccupationGrocer

William Fyfe Finlayson (12 August 1867 – 13 January 1955) was an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1910 to 1919 and a member of the Queensland Legislative Council from 1920 to 1922.

Finlayson was born on 12 August 1867 in Kilsyth, Stirlingshire (now in North Lanarkshire), Scotland, the son of Malcolm Finlayson and his wife Christine (née Fergus).[1] He was educated there before becoming an apprentice grocer. Together with his parents and siblings, he immigrated to Brisbane on the Duke of Devonshire arriving on 13 September 1887.[2] He started a wholesale and retail fruit business in George Street with his brother, left in 1895 after a trip to the United States to set up a branch of the business in Maryborough, before returning to the Brisbane business as junior partner c. 1903 following a prolonged trip to Scotland. He was active in church work, was Queensland Grand Secretary of the International Organisation of Good Templars and was also a trade unionist, serving as president of the Hairdressers' Employees Federation.[3][4]

In 1910, Finlayson was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the Labor member for Brisbane, defeating Liberal minister Justin Foxton.[5] In parliament, he was a member of the Royal Commission on the Fruit Industry from 1912 to 1914 and a member of the Standing Committee on Public Works from 1914 to 1917. He was a staunch opponent of conscription during the 1916 conscription referendum. He was involved in a key moment of the 1916 Labor split that followed the referendum result, when on 14 November 1916 he moved a successful motion to expel Prime Minister Billy Hughes from the Labor caucus, leading Hughes and his supporters to form a non-Labor ministry with their former opponents on 15 November.[6][7] He held the seat until his defeat in 1919.[8][9]

In 1920 Finlayson was appointed to the Queensland Legislative Council and was one of the Labor members who successfully voted for its abolition in 1922.[10][11] An attempt to win Labor preselection for his old federal seat in 1925 was ruled ineligible due to his ties to the Victorian Anti-Liquor League, which had endorsed a non-Labor candidate for the Melbourne City Council.[12]

Finlayson relocated to Victoria during the 1920s, making an unsuccessful Labor candidacy for the conservative Victorian Legislative Assembly seat of Brighton at a 1928 by-election and serving as a City of Heidelberg councillor during the 1930s.[13][14] He was an influential member of the Victorian General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and was the convenor of its temperance committee.[15][16]

He was a staunch campaigner for the prohibition of alcohol throughout his life, and at the peak of the Prohibition movement in the 1920s was known as one of Australia's leading prohibitionists, serving as secretary of the Australian Prohibition Council, superintendent of the Victorian Prohibition League, industrial organiser for the Anti-Saloon League of Victoria, and touring Australia campaigning for Prohibition. He was Grand Chief Templar of Victoria of the International Organisation of Good Templars and remained an active temperance advocate until his death.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23]

Finlayson died in Melbourne in 1955.[9]

  1. ^ "1867 Finlayson, William (Statutory registers Births 483/ 192)". Scotlands People. Government of Scotland.
  2. ^ "Passenger list for the Duke of Devonshire arriving Brisbane on 13 September 1887". Queensland State Archives. Archived from the original on 7 October 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  3. ^ "LABOR NOTES". The Worker. New South Wales, Australia. 29 December 1910. p. 9. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ "MALCOLM H. FINLAYSON". Queensland Country Life. Vol. 11, no. 6. Queensland, Australia. 1 June 1910. p. 14. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ Carr, Adam (2008). "Australian Election Archive". Psephos, Adam Carr's Election Archive. Retrieved 5 July 2008.
  6. ^ "LABOR CAUCUS EXPELS HUGHES". Daily Mercury. Queensland, Australia. 15 November 1916. p. 3. Retrieved 8 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "FEDERAL CRISIS". Weekly Times. No. 2, 467. Victoria, Australia. 18 November 1916. p. 33. Retrieved 8 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "THE BRISBANE CONTEST". Geraldton Guardian. Western Australia. 3 January 1920. p. 2. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ a b "OBITUARY". Worker. Vol. 65, no. 3523. Queensland, Australia. 24 January 1955. p. 4. Retrieved 7 October 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ "QUEENSLAND'S LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL". The Advocate. Tasmania, Australia. 20 February 1920. p. 3. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ "ABOLITION OF QUEENSLAND'S LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL". The Worker. Vol. 33, no. 1610. Brisbane. 16 March 1922. p. 11. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ "LABOR CANDIDATE FOR WIDE BAY". The Herald. No. 14, 971. Victoria, Australia. 14 May 1925. p. 7. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. ^ "TO CONTEST BRIGHTON SEAT". Daily Standard. No. 4760. Queensland, Australia. 14 April 1928. p. 6. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ "Councillor W. F. Finlayson". Cairns Post. No. 10, 344. Queensland, Australia. 3 April 1935. p. 6. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ "HUT HELPER COLLECTS NEARLY £1000". The Herald. No. 19, 820. Victoria, Australia. 21 November 1940. p. 40. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ "CANTEEN ISSUE". The Argus. No. 29, 199. Melbourne. 23 March 1940. p. 5. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ^ "PROHIBITION LEADER". The News. Vol. X, no. 1, 536 (SPORTING ed.). Adelaide. 16 June 1928. p. 6. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ "PROHIBITION". Illawarra Mercury. Vol. 44, no. 29. New South Wales, Australia. 3 August 1928. p. 13. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ^ "PROHIBITION". South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus. Vol. XXIX, no. 32. New South Wales, Australia. 10 August 1928. p. 19. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. ^ "Family Notices". Townsville Daily Bulletin. Vol. LXXV. Queensland, Australia. 22 January 1955. p. 2. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  21. ^ "Objection to Club Licences". The Age. No. 29, 304. Victoria, Australia. 29 March 1949. p. 6. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  22. ^ "GOOD TEMPLARS". The Age. No. 28, 053. Victoria, Australia. 20 March 1945. p. 4. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  23. ^ "PERSONAL". Queensland Times. Vol. LXVII, no. 12, 568. 28 October 1926. p. 4 (DAILY.). Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via National Library of Australia.